The present invention is drawn to a one-piece hood for an outdoor grill. More particularly, the invention is to a gas grill that includes a one piece hood formed with side recesses. Additionally, the disclosed grill includes a contoured control panel and side tables that can be teardrop shaped.
Prior art gas grills suffer from various deficiencies. Hoods on gas grills must usually be cast in a relatively costly manner in order to have sufficient strength to prevent warping due to heat. U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,579 to Murphy et al., U.S. Pat. No. D415,388 to Wagner et al., and U.S. Pat No. D420,244 to Pai disclose the use of conventional stepped and angled ridges that are often incorporated into cast aluminum hoods in order to taper the hood for both material savings and better heat circulation (see column 3, line 66 to column 4, line 26 of Murphy et al.). FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,358 to Hanagan et al. discloses a similar ridge element depending vertically from the top wall and slanting to the front wall. These ridges inherently stiffen the walls against bending, but none of this art suggest the desirability of stiffening along the entire perimeter of a side wall.
U.S. Pat. Nos. D237,856 to Madson et al. and U.S. Pat. No. D229,660 to Gammon disclose hoods with semicircular side walls that are indented, but only adjacent to the curved upper portions of the walls. The xe2x80x9cindentationxe2x80x9d continues to the bottom edge to be coextensive with the bottom of the side wall perimeter and therefore not xe2x80x9cadjacentxe2x80x9d to the perimeter along that portion. Additionally, Madson et al. does not have an indentation of a substantially uniform depth and Gammon does not disclose a hood formed in one piece. As design patents, neither Madson et al. nor Gammon suggests any reasons or advantages of this design, beyond ornamentation.
It is an object of the invention to provide an outdoor grill that includes a one-piece hood formed with side recesses that provide strength to resist warping under heating conditions.
It is another object of the invention to provide a grill hood that is both durable and attractive, yet inexpensive to produce.